Jun 21, 2013

Buzzing By

11x14
Oil/masonite panel
Studio painting

Been doing more studio works lately, this one included.  I love painting night scenes and this one in particular was fun to put together.  This is from photo reference that I took when I was in Cuernavaca, Mexico a few years ago.  After all this time of wanting to do it, I finally got around to it.  Funny how that happens.  I have a lot of other reference for that trip so hopefully it won't take another 3 years to get to that.  One thing I do like is the challenge of low or high horizon lines, so this one fits into that category.  I really like the atmosphere in this one and how the colors are modeled together.  And the prospect of painting signage always gets me going as I am really fascinated and attracted to them.  Especially vintage or odd looking ones.... even the occasional billboard.

2 comments:

Matt Chinian Painting blog said...

I really enjoy your dusk/night paintings and have been trying to figure out how to get there, your use of color and value is WOW! Are you able to use the photo's to jog your memory or how do you get into the color? photos are always (for me) so flat, I haven't been able to use them (except for the slightest of touch- up references in my out-door paintings). Great work!

Danny Griego said...

Thanks Matthew much appreciated! Sorry for the delayed response, I just changed my setting for comments because I was getting a lot of spam. And I just now discovered how to approve comments. Anyway, I use photo reference more for placement than for color. So in this case pretty much all the color in the painting is noticeably different from the color in the photo. There was a lot of black in this photo so it was a challenge to find ways to put color in those darks. I took the photo about 3 years ago, but I do remember how striking the bright sign looked with the saturated blue sky in the back. Also, doing a few color comps (4x6 mini canvases) helped to point me in the right direction with color choices, value, etc. Hope that helps! I really enjoy your work, keep it up!